After Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s long and harrowing journey out of Ukraine, the last thing we’d expect would be for him to go back. But that’s exactly what he plans to do.
Of course, it was clear from his advocacy for his native country that the Dancing with the Stars pro would continue to speak up and use his platform once he returned to the United States. And to be fair, that’s exactly what he’s done, continuing to use social media to raise awareness as well as doing multiple interviews to discuss his time in Ukraine.
However, Maks apparently feels he can do more if he returns to Europe.
Related: Maks’s Wife Peta Murgatroyd Is ‘Forever Grateful’ For His Safe Return From Ukraine
In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, he revealed:
“I spent the last couple of days with survivor’s remorse, I believe that that’s what it’s called, and I’m currently working on an opportunity to go back. Probably sometime next week I’m going to go back to Poland and join efforts on the ground. Sort of want to justify my safe out that way.”
Wow. That’s a brave and bold move.
As it turns out, the television personality only left the country in the first place because he is now an American citizen. He explained:
“It wasn’t really a decision to leave, it was more like I got told that I have to go. The Ukrainian people, in general, they were waiting for this conflict. They were prepared, they were ready, it was eight years in the making. And that was the whole general feeling since I started, sort of, my involvement with Ukraine over in… September of last year. I kept consulting on a couple of TV shows and… dance-related projects.”
He went on:
“The entire time, the feeling was that something is looming. All the time I was being told that, ‘If something happens, we’ll take you out. You’ll be the first to move out of the country.’ And when everything happened, it happened suddenly, and it happened like… you know, that morning, I was literally driving to film, and at 5 AM, someone was bombarding my phone saying, ‘You have to go now.’”
The 42-year-old recalled:
“So then I got stuck for the next five days. But eventually, the morning of the day that I left, I started getting calls from people that I’d met in the last couple of days that were all military personnel, unrelated sources, and people started bombarding me saying, ‘You have to go, things are about to get crazy. You are an American citizen, you have to leave the country.’”
The dancer, who has spoken a lot about his guilt following his escape from the country, admitted:
“I still sort of fought that feeling, the internal feeling — you know, I have a lot of friends, I was doing a lot of things locally, I was organizing some initiatives… just on my phone, again, very very sort of low key. But you know, I felt really bad going, and the feeling sunk in even worse because when I got to the train station, I realized that it’s all women and children. And that I’m literally, I’m too big and I’m taking up space.”
Related: Ukrainian Actor Pasha Lee Reportedly Killed At 33 In Russian Shelling Attack
He told Anderson:
“So I had put myself in between trains. I literally moved out of the area where people would’ve all been. … Internally, I sort of justified my space ’cause I was outside. It wasn’t a livable situation because it was too freezing. So I would pace around in that space, come in, thaw out and then go back outside, so I helped a lot with their needs and bags and that stuff. Just to kind of like, you know, understand that I’m not just taking up space.”
After hearing so much about his grueling 23-hour train ride, it’s incredible that Maks still wants to go back. But we admire his commitment to the cause.
We hope he stays safe — and that the conflict will soon come to a peaceful resolution.
[Image via CNN/Maksim Chmerkovskiy/Instagram]
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